Home » Illinois » Melrose Park

James W. Loewen (1942-2021)

We mourn the loss of our friend and colleague and remain committed to the work he began.

Melrose Park

Illinois

Basic Information

Type of Place
Metro Area
Politics c. 1860?
Unions, Organized Labor?

Sundown Town Status

Sundown Town in the Past?
Was there an ordinance?
Sign?
Year of Greatest Interest
Still Sundown?

Census Information

The available census data from 1860 to the present
Total White Black Asian Native Hispanic Other BHshld
1860
1870
1880
1890
1900
1910
1920
1930
1940
1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010
2020

Method of Exclusion

Main Ethnic Group(s)

Group(s) Excluded

Comments

Leavenworth Times, July 26, 1901 “Didn’t Want Any Negroes”: (story dateline, Chicago) “While residents of Maywood, Melrose Park and Bellwood waited along the tracks of the Chicago Junction railway during the early hours of the morning to bar out the trainload of southern negroes, the much sought train was sidetracked at Blue Island.
The Illinois Central road turned the special train over to the Junction railway at 12:20 a.m. When Blue Rapids was reached it was decidede [sic] not to proceed to Melrose Park till morning.
The negroes were loud in their protestations that they would no [sic] have come north had they known such a tempest was brewing. All day yesterday the reports that reached them of the greeting awaiting them at Melrose Park grew more threatening. Early today it was declared on the train that 100 of the men had deserted at Fulton, Ind., and gone to work for the railway company. Ignorant that the train was at Blue Island the peaceable committee, composed of the Rev. T. F. Cookingham, Peter H. Bolander, W. H. Schockey, A. H. Gallagher, Charles Wolf and fifteen others, during the early hours of the morning awaited the negroes, hoping to persuade them not to leave the cars and the engineer to pull out to some place of safety.
As an offset to the peace committee, another crowd, estimated at 125 men, all armed with revolvers, were scattered along the tracks awaiting to give the negroes a hint to leave or take the consequences if they remained.”